Pics from Florida

Just wanted to share a few pictures of the kids on their trip to Florida. They miss us very much and we miss them too! It seems that Kaitlyn misses us both but Caleb just misses daddy. I guess I'm chopped liver... Just kidding!

As for the girls - they are about the same. Cranky as always. Okay, just Rachel. Today was a big milestone - we had some errands to run and we had to go Maryland. Their first trip out of state! Wow! Such exciting lives they lead :)

In the pool, of course - somewhere around 4 hours a day!




On the trail that Grandpa made behind the house. The bench is new and the kids seem to love it...



Grandpa makes a great lunch!

Life With "Just" Triplets

For the last week we have been without Kaitlyn and Caleb and we miss them terribly! But I know they are having a great time in Florida with Grandma and Grandpa. They've been in the pool every day and are loving that even though I know they miss us :)

Without them we are parents of "just" triplets. It's been very weird. We've gotten no less comments on how our hands are full and gotten no less attention. That's been interesting. I'd like to say I'm getting more things done but since I still watch Allyson and Julia during the day it's been pretty much the same - mom of 5!

I've also been volunteering at a consignment sale this past week. My new obsession is obtaining great clothes at a low price. I'm having a blast :) The girls will be beautifully dressed this coming winter. Mom loves clothes!

The weekend has been a little weird around here and very quiet. As the sale is now over I'm sure I'll notice the lack of older kids this coming week. Still dreading that 17 hour trip to Florida...

Here's some pictures from the week:

The girl's new favorite thing - our homemade ball pit!





And here's what Kaitlyn and Caleb were doing today - trying on flower girl dresses (okay - not Caleb - but he's there - can you tell how happy he is?!). Kaitlyn will be the flower girl and Caleb the ring bearer in my younger brother, Daniel's wedding next June. Isn't she just adorable?!

Bath Changes

The girls are growing up. Of course I know this and truly they aren't that old but at 8 1/2 months they are out of their swings and baby items and onto the floor. Which, by the way, they have taken by storm. Nothing thrills Julianna more than seeing me or a really good toy across the room and scooting as fast as she can to get to it. Doesn't matter if there's a sister in the way or not!

Rachel doesn't actually bend at the waist. She should, of course, but she does not. Absolutely refuses. I think I have given birth to a board. If she can stand up and grab on to something she is much happier. Strange child.

Alyssa is content sitting up in the middle of the floor. If I enter the room she cries. It's nice - I'm loved :)

And now, the girls have outgrown their baby bath. They still do love it but they are entirely too big and must now all be bathed together in the big tub. So, since this is my unofficial "baby book" I have decided to post some pictures of the change :)

From this:







To this:









Just too cute!! The girls are doing great but they miss their big sister and brother who made it safely to Florida yesterday. We all also had a great time at the Freedom Center on Sunday celebrating Kaitlyn's 7th birthday. Busy, busy :)

Temporary Reinforcements

We have called in reinforcements but unfortunately they are just temporary :) My parents have arrived for 2 days before they leave again to take Kaitlyn and Caleb to Florida with them for 2 1/2 weeks. Kirk and I have decided to be insane and take the triplets to Florida in a few weeks and then my parents will drive back with us a week or so later and help us bring all 5 kids back. I'm not looking forward to it! The screaming, the crying and then the babies make noise too...

But, Kirk and I really need a break and are looking forward to having my mom's help for a number of days as well as my future sister-in-law. We're also hoping for some time in their pool and a maybe the ability to relax!

The kids were super excited for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive today. Kaitlyn and Caleb asked a thousand times when they would arrive! The triplets had no idea but they took a bath and dressed in their best sleepers to look pretty :) And Alyssa had a surprise for them - her first tooth! Finally! Julianna has 4, Alyssa now has 1 and Rachel still has none.





Speaking of family, Kirk's niece stopped by on her drive up north and became the first of Kirk's family to meet the triplets. We also got the pleasure of meeting her new daughter, Liberty. Although at one month younger than the triplets, Liberty was much bigger and much more active. Go figure!

This is Kirk's niece, Joy and her son, Terrell (10), daughter, Victoria (3) and Liberty (7 months):

7 Years!

Can you believe it? Kaitlyn is now 7 years old. It's amazing how time flies. Doesn't seem that long ago that I posted pictures from her 6th birthday. Things have certainly changed for her since then - triplet sisters, finished 1st grade, got glasses. I hope the coming year is a bit calmer.

These are pictures of her over the past few years. We have no baby pictures of her on the computer but maybe we'll find some soon and add them on. This slide show is a bit slow but it seemed appropriate and is really worth it.

Here's to my beautiful daughter - I love you and I'm so happy for these past 7 years. May God give us many more together...

I'm Behind!

So, the girls actually turned 8 months old yesterday and I like to post every month on their monthly birthday just to give a month's review but it has officially happened and I am late! I apologize :) It's been a very busy week. But when isn't it really?

What has changed since last month? A lot really. Now Julianna and Rachel are extremely mobile. They can get anywhere they want to go. They're not crawling in the traditional sense but they have the army crawl thing down. Julianna is growing her 4th tooth! She has two on the bottom, one clearly through on the top and the 2nd one almost in on the top. The other 2 still have none...

Julianna has become a bully. She has been spotted crawling over Rachel, grabbing toys out of Rachel's hands, eating Rachel's head. Notice how it's always Rachel! Alyssa seems to stay out of the fight and is busy doing her own thing.

In fact, Alyssa can sit up very well. Many, many minutes without falling over but she has no desire to try to move very far. Just quite content to sit in the middle of the floor and play with a toy. It's really cute.

Alyssa now loves the water. We went to the pool again yesterday (I am burnt to a crisp again - darn, why don't I have better skin??!!) and Julianna and Alyssa both loved floating around the baby pool and sitting with mommy in the big pool and splashing in the water. Rachel tolerated it but not for long and soon fell asleep in her car seat thus missing the big kid pool. Oh well, next time.

Alyssa and Rachel now love the jumper too and enjoy swinging in it and bouncing like crazy. They are 3 adorable, active girls and I can't believe they are 8 months old already! Crazy thought: the girls have now been out of me longer than they were in :) Making more progress till their first year...

Just Like Mom

Today was a big day in our family. At least for Kaitlyn. She has now followed in both of her parents footsteps and not in such a great way. She got her first pair of glasses today. Her eyesight has been bad for a while but we have been a bit busy in the last year. Hmmm... wonder why :) And I have been a little behind on getting her in. Partly due to time, partly money and partly because I knew the anxiety it would bring to Kaitlyn who was petrified of the appointment and petrified of the glasses themselves.

With some very good handling on the part of the employees of Lenscrafters Kaitlyn survived her appointment and got her prescription for her glasses. Once she put on the doctor's sample glasses and saw that she could see she was amazed. Things were no longer blurry! She was so bad she couldn't read below the largest letter on the chart. The glasses took an hour to make and in that time she changed from hating glasses to being excited to get them.

So, without further delay here's a picture of our Kaitlyn now...



Isn't she adorable? And speaking of adorable - here's the girls with Kaitlyn tonight and not to be left out a picture of Caleb who at least smiled for his picture tonight! Such a rare thing that it must be captured :)

Our First Cookie

Okay, so being home by myself with 5 kids has been interesting. More interesting then with 7 kids (the other girls are out of town for a week) because I don't have 3 girls to entertain each other so I have become Kaitlyn's sole source of entertainment :) And Caleb's, and Julianna's and Rachel's and Alyssa's... Well, you get the point.

So, today I decided to try something new with the girls and give them those very messy biter biscuits. But they loved them and it bought me like 20 minutes of quiet!! Woo hoo!! The girls still hate food. Love their bottles, hate food. I think we'll be skipping baby food and going straight to regular food. Julianna would prefer that. Rachel doesn't care and Alyssa is good either way.

Here are the results from today's "experiment" - notice the trays - I don't usually do that either:



Here's Julianna - isn't she a disaster? Pretty much what usually happens with her food - out of the mouth and onto the bib. I guess she feels it's better there!




Rachel was the least impressed with the cookie and barely ate it. In the end it disappeared into thin air and I still can't find it but given her "clean" look I know she didn't eat it!



Alyssa loved it but then again she loves every type of food she can gnaw on. And if there's no food available, mommy's fingers will do just fine! Just try to get that cookie out of her hand - not that you would want to touch it. Ewwww!

It's Official

We have crawling babies! Well, one crawling baby anyway (Julianna) and when Julianna does something Rachel is never far behind. Alyssa, on the other hand, it still her "lazy" self and gets stuck on her belly still. I do think she's sitting up quite a bit longer then the others but that's probably only because she has the patience to do so.

I am still amazed by their personalities. Julianna always asks like the older one and does things far before the other two do. She wants to get down and go. She cries when she can't get a hold of a toy she wants or loses one. She doesn't want to be held.

Rachel is just a funny little girl. She has a lot of heart along with the biggest eyes and mouth I've ever seen! She's a bit less cranky lately and her favorite game is chase brother or sister. Makes her giggle every time. Speaking of big sister - she has become a great helper lately and is doing wonderfully at entertaining the girls. They LOVE her! Caleb entertains them occasionally but would much prefer that I do it as well as take care of him :)

Alyssa is still as cuddly as ever. She loves to just sit on my lap and play with whatever toy she can get in her mouth. She hates to be on her stomach and is stuck there for the time being when she rolls over. She doesn't want to move!

The swings will be coming down. Julianna is just too mobile and today while Rachel was swinging Julianna got herself under there and about got her head knocked off. I caught her so she's fine but now I have to either put all 3 in or none and given Julianna's desire to move. Forget it!

So, enjoy the video of Julianna that Kirk took today. Again, she just cracks us up so I hope you get a laugh out of this too and that you enjoyed your once in a century day - 7/7/07 :)

Celebration Pictures

Here are the pictures as promised. Thanks to Kristy Shepherd for taking them for me. I think she got some good ones :) Hope everyone likes slide shows because I love to make them!

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! I hope that everyone had a safe and fun holiday. We had a great but extremely busy day. This morning was spent with friend and then it was off to a neighborhood get together. The kids played on the water slide, the babies got passed around and we all ate lots of good food. It was great to meet some neighbors we didn't know before. Unfortunately, we had to leave before the bike parade and the fireworks so we could head to Middleburg and watch "real" fireworks. Have to see those!

We started celebrating early... Sunday the girls wore their new July 4th outfits from Grandma and Grandpa to church. Since it was a skirt outfit it seemed appropriate.



Daddy made the kids their own home made rockets. Not sure if it was for the 4th of July or not but again it seemed to fit :)

Caleb is serious about his rocket.



Kaitlyn strikes a pose.



And our family picture from today. We all wore our Old Navy shirts :) The girls wore red and the boys were in blue.



The girls seemed to enjoy their 1st 4th. We tried to feed them in the van and have them go to sleep during the fireworks but Alyssa and Rachel had other ideas and wanted out of the van to watch the fireworks which they seemed to really enjoy. It was very cute.

It blows my mind that a year ago today we were in Florida celebrating with my parents and I was pregnant with the triplets having no idea what we were having. We haven't been to Florida in a year. I don't think we've ever gone that long without a visit. We miss everyone especially my parents and we can't wait to see them soon!

Hopefully I'll have a few more pictures from today's adventures soon but since I forgot my camera everywhere we went I don't have the pictures yet! You think I would think of these things :)

Multiples, Multiples Everywhere

AKA the Prince William Moms of Multiples Club Picnic. AKA as minivan central. Today was an enormously eventful day. First off was the multiples club picnic and we all had a great time. Lots and lots of twins and two sets of triplets. I'm going to begin working on recruiting some triplets :) The older two got a chance to play in the sand, the sprinkler and on the playground. Mom and Dad got to deal with cranky babies who missed their nap time. But even in a multiples club people love babies so we had many hands eager to help out and hold. We had a great day!

Kaitlyn and Caleb wore their "Sister of Triplets" and "Brother of Triplets" respectively. Seemed so appropriate...



The girls having fun on the blanket:





I've got to tell you that Rachel is one sly dog. She is miss cranky all the time but I break out the camera and who do I get fussing? Alyssa of course! Maybe Alyssa just hates having her picture taken :)



After the picnic it was off to a birthday party. And this on the heels of VBS for the two older kids. It has been a very crazy, busy week! Gotta love it!

Back to Work

So, after 7 months of "slacking" I am back to work taking care of a friend's girls during the day :) We are having a fun summer so far and I just wanted to share photos of my "new" crew (feels like I have 2 sets of triplet girls with poor Caleb in the middle!).

From left to right - top row: Kaitlyn, Julia and Allyson
Bottom row: Rachel, Julianna and Alyssa (sound similar?!)
Caleb is by himself on the right :( He needs some sympathy!



During the day the girls often come in to play with "themselves". We joke because of all the similar names and the girls like to play with their counterparts. They are in charge of the baby with the most similar name :) Kaitlyn is the exception so she is paired with Rachel.

Kaitlyn and Rachel:



Julia and Julianna:



Allyson and Alyssa:



And just some fun pictures of our day. We're on a pretty tight schedule (self-imposed but it keeps me sane) but we do get to let loose sometimes!




The 4th girl is Kaitlyn's friend Emery:

Pool Party

Today was Savannah's birthday party (a church friend of Kaitlyn's) and I packed up my 5 plus Allyson and Julia and went to the pool for the first time this summer. The girls had their first experience in the water and as you will see their reactions varied. We had a great time and we hope that Savannah has a very happy 7th birthday!

Sugar and Spice

And everything not so nice has come out of my girls in the last week. So, everyone knows that last week the girls were sick but what I feel that I must share now is that somehow this has changed their bodies. I don't know what happened - freak of nature maybe - but ever since I have spent every day changing the girls clothes with every diaper change. I can't expain it but all of a sudden a diaper is not enough to hold in what these girls can put out. Every outfit, every time. Even the carseats and my friend's floor - dripped through the carseat and got onto her floor. That was Alyssa. It took two other moms to change Julianna today after her turn. I don't think I'll be invited back :)

So, I'm just wondering if somehow they got the saying wrong for girls because I haven't noticed any sugar or spice. What happened to my babies??!!

Friday will be their first day in a pool (unless they don't let us in for our pooping problem...) so I'll have a happier post then but for today I'm going crazy. I'm very tired of screaming girls and poopy diapers. Who signed me up for this job anyway??

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband :) And also to my dad who I consider to be the best dad in the world! Love you both.

7 Months Old Today!

This is a 7 month picture of me and the girls (L to R: Alyssa, Rachel, Julianna). It's a little different from our first photos 7 months ago! I can't believe how far we've come.

Things I've learned in 7 Months:

- it's surprisingly easy to tune out a lot of crying - "what did you hear something? Nope, not me!"

- it's surprisingly easy to make a schedule and stick with it - surprisingly it's also very hard to figure out your day when you're off that schedule

- it's easier to go out in public with the babies then for one of us to stay home and deal with thier screaming (so maybe I'm not as good as tuning them out as I'd like to be...).

(Here I must add a notice to everyone: we are not going out in public to try and show off or to make you feel better or worse about your life. It's just our best survival tactic for both of us to date. I'm also aware that other people have twins, triplets and wow, even more than us. I don't need to be reminded - again, I'm not trying to one up you because I had more kids at once than you - this is just my life!)

- entertainers don't entertain very long and no amount of toys is enough - they're bored of all of them in about 20 mintues - now what? We go out! (See above note)

- triplets are a good excuse for anything. "Hey, you're late!" "Yep, I have triplets." "What's with the tummy pooch?" "I have triplets." "Do you need help?" "I have triplets." :) Get the point?!

- our biggest survival secret besides leaving the house is the snugli - Kirk has a double one and without it I don't think I would be sane. Of course, if you ask my friends they already know I'm not!

- while it is really easy to love each of my 5 kids seperately and entirely I still feel guilty about stupid little things - Caleb is the only boy, did I hold each girl enough today? Does said baby feel left out because she's actually being good today? I know it doesn't matter but it's a mom thing!!

- to quote a line from "Jon and Kate plus 8" : "It's a crazy life but it's our life." To add my own sentiment - "I love it!" (if you have cable I encourage you to watch this show - makes us laugh every time and it's great to see someone with more kids at once than us!)

Milestones to Date:

- Alyssa can roll over both ways but not in succession
- Julianna can roll everywhere and can rock on all fours
- Rachel can roll over and rock on all fours - we are getting close to crawling
- They have one tooth between the 3 of them
- They do not eat food very well, still. Alyssa like stuff like breadsticks and crackers - the other two don't care
- No one can sit up but they are all trying

Mom's Milestones:

- Joined a moms of multiples club although my club could also be renamed mom of twins club... Oh well, I'll just hope for more triplets
- Joined a writer's club
- Almost finished reading my first novel in 7 months. This is a big step for me and my reading buddies will be happy although they both read much faster than me...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday to Daddy from Kaitlyn, Caleb, Julianna, Rachel and Alyssa and of course, Mommy. While I had hoped to put some cute pictures of the kids up for him we have been unable to take any due to everyone being sick. The kids all seem to be doing better and only Caleb has thrown up today. Now we just need Kaitlyn to want to eat!

All 6 of us love Daddy very much and are so thankful that we can celebrate his birthday with him today. We'll be celebrating more this weekend when we can also say Happy Father's Day :)

A Day For The Record Books

If our house doesn't land in the Guiness Book of World Records for most vomit in a household I don't want to be near the one that does!! My day begins just fine other than me breaking out in hives - again - it's been going on for over 2 weeks and I have no idea what I'm allergic to. So, I finally call the doctor to make an appointment because I'm just going crazy.

The girls were cranky yesterday but that's not unusual. This morning they got up at 9:30 (they've been sleeping better lately) and they all ate their breakfast just fine. I put Julianna in the jumper after she was done and she just jumps everywhere - so cute - thus the video yesterday - makes me laugh every time. Then she stops and throws up everywhere. This didn't strike me as odd because the girls sometimes spit up. So, the girls play but seem cranky and tired so my friend, Barb, and I put them down for a nap while all the other kids play. Kaitlyn is telling me she's sick but she says that a lot.

Yep, you got it, she throws up too. And has been throwing up since. When the girls get up from their nap we make them bottles again but Julianna has thrown up in her crib and is dry heaving on herself in her "highchair". Then after they eat, Alyssa throws up everywhere too. I can't believe it! Three puking kids.

But, it gets better, the girls nap for 3 hours because they are sick and exhausted. At their "dinner" bottle they all eat okay but Alyssa is still feeling sick and she's dry heaving and then after dinner throws up on the floor, on herself and on me. While the girls are screaming Rachel decides she can't be left out and she too throws up everywhere.

I have never seen anything so crazy. Oh, yea, and it's raining and we lose electricity for a bit. Thankfully not long.

Anyway, that has been my day and it isn't over yet. Right now I'm just hoping they sleep tonight without throwing up on themselves! Kaitlyn included in that.

P.S. I did make it to the doctor and he gave me some steroids to get rid of the hives. Still have no idea what I could be allergic to but hopefully this will help.

P.P.S. Make that 5 vomiting kids. Not to be left out Caleb joined his sisters a little after 10 this evening. Thank God for washing machines because every cover and bedsheet is in there and I'd be surprised if we got any sleep tonight. Happy Birthday to Kirk!! He turns 32 tomorrow and if there's no post it's because he and/or I are throwing up :) We are terrible with holidays! Look back at Christmas - I was sick then...

Because This Makes Me Laugh...

I thought it would make you laugh too.



Doesn't the cat look intrigued?





All for your personal enjoyment. Sometimes the girls make me laugh so I just had to share. What you can't see in this photo is that Alyssa is screaming her head off. Sometimes it pays to see the other side of things :)